Note-sheet fob musical instbuments



UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

CHARLES E. STODDARD, 0E BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Y NOTE-SHEET FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

, Patented May 20, 1919.

Application led January. 23, 1912, Serial No. 672,802. :Renewedl October24, 1918. Serial No. 259,595.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES F. STODDARD,

a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Boston, county ofSuffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement inNote-Sheets for Musical Instruments, of which the following description,in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, likecharacters lon the 10 drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to note sheets for governing the playing ofautomatic or partly automatic musical instruments, as,

for example, player-pianos.

Among other objects the invention 1S 1ntended lto provide for asubstantially accurate reproduction or imitation of the sustaining pedaleffects produced in manual playing and to which the beauties of manualrendition are largely attributable.

Heretofore in the art, provision has been made in automatic playinapparatus for operating a damper or similar pedal mechanismautomatically under the control of the note sheet. For example, marginalperforations in note sheets have been provided for shifting the damperrail of the instrument.

to withdraw. the dampers and returnthem to the strings at desiredintervals. Thishas required the provision of a special mechanismadditional to that required for sounding the notes.

Furthermore, in the art, provision has been made in automatic playingapparatus for a manual control of the damper pedal mechanism vsuch thatthe operator, following the instruction of notations upon the perforatednote sheet, could withdraw and replace the dampers at will. This wasobjectionable because of the diiiiculty which any operator but a skilleddemonstrator linds inV following the instructive notation on a notesheet and further, because it required the operators attention to amanual control additional to such tempo and intensity controls as areordinarily operated manually on many types of players.

` There anism for operating a'damper rail so as to withdraw all or alarge proportion of the dampers simultaneously, particularly in that theundamping of many notes including a succession of notes in the rangepermits sympathetic vibration of all of the undamped strings whetherthey are inharmonious or not. Thus, for examplewhen all of the dampersare removed and only a few notes sounded, a sympathetic vibration issetgup in "substantially all of the strin and the resultant volume ofsound is ma e up of a combination of harmonious and inharmonious soundssuch that the resultant sound is often harsh and disagreeable.

The specific embodiment of this invention about to be describedovercomes all the obj ections referred to above and provides a notesheet capable of reproducing or imitating with remarkable fidelity thedesirable edects which accompany the operation of a damper or similarmechanism, to the exclusion of the inharmonious and undesirable effects.For this purpose, the illustrative note sheet does not necessarily haveany marginal perforations for controlling any pedal operating mechanism,but may be provided merely with perforations corresponding to .theindividual notes to be sounded. Furthernotes to the exclusion of thosewhich are not desired to enter into the harmony. Likewise, for the firsttime in the art, this invention provides for a very beautifulreproduction or imitation of damper pedal edects by utilizing merely theindividual note sounding actions of the instrument, thus providing forautomatic production of damper pedal effects upon instruments which haveno automatic damper pedal mechanism or manual damper pedal mechanism forthat matter. In these respects, therefore, applicant is entitled to beconsidered a pioneer inventor.

The character of the invention may be readily understood by reference tothe acis a further objection to any mechcompanying drawing which showsdiagrammatically and by way of illustration, a note sheet embodying theinvention. The arrow near the foot of the ligure indicates the directionin which the note sheet is assumed to be traveling.

The perforations in the drawing, indicated in full lines, are thosewhich would be cutin accordance with practices prior to this invention,for playing the individual notes, the sheet being laid out and theperforations arranged by reference to a musical score or other record ofa composers composition or a performers rendition. prolongations of thefull line perforations areV those which contribute principally to theproduction of the sustaining pedal effect in the playing as controlledby the illustrative note sheet. Y- Y According toY practices heretoforeemployed, the note sheet would be cut as indicated in full lines, theadvance ends of the dierent perforations being appropriately related toproduce the desired tempo as is Vwell understood. in the art. Thelengths of the full line perforations would be determined substantiallyby reference to what may be called the noted tempo value indicated uponthe record from which the note sheet is made. In-some instances, ac-

cording to the prior art, one such full line perforation might be madeto overlap the following perforation or perforations very slightly in anattempt to produce what is called a legato effect, but the overlappingVfor this purpose would not cause any perceptible or materialoverlapping in the sounded tones; and the purpose of the presentinvention. is very dierent in kind from that of the so-called legatocutting.

In a note sheet cut in accordance with the full line representations ofthe drawing, no damper pedal or like effects could 'be producedautomatically except by .providing Vsupplemental perforations requiringthe c0- operation of automatic damper rail 'controlling mechanism,involving not only the provision of additional automatic apparatus inthe playing instrument, but also involving the sympathetic vibration ofdiscordant strings.

In accordance with the present invention,

Y throughout van arbitrary period and until lits sounding is terminatedto provide vfora resounding by the perforation 104. The latter is alsoarbitrarily prolonged tofsustain its note. The combined lengths of theperforations 100, 103 and 104, 107, indicate, by way of illustration, aperiod of time in 'the travel of the note sheet during which it isdesired to'sustain notes of the rst group to reproduce or imitate asustaining 'pedal eifect.

The illustrative hiatus between the prolon'gation 103 and theperforation .-104 is intended merely to provide vfor 'a :second dis- ThedottedA lineV tinct percussion of the corresponding string which isdesired to occur in the playing; and this hiatus is preferably so briefthat it is little if any appreciated by the hearer, the

result being to all intents and purposes that 100 is sustainedthroughout the desired period of the pedal eect, the re-sounding of thenote Vof the perforation 104 being introduced in accordance with thetempo of the original record.

In like manner, a'perforation 101 having its advance end located inproper relation'to fect indicated by the original record, WhenVaccompanied by a sustaining pedal operation.

A perforation 111 Vsounds its note in the proper tempo relation to theothers, and that note is sustained-by a prolongation 112 extendingthroughout the distance corresponding to the period during which thesustaining pedal effect is desired to be maintained.

The foregoing will suflice to illustrate to those skilled in the art, aconstruction Vof note sheet embodying this invention. The specificillustration of the drawings represents aV practicable arrangement ofperforations and prolongations.

It will be noted that these sustaining effects are produced by theindividual note perforations whereby the specic notes are themselvessustained and such sympathetic harmonious vibrations occur in such otherstrings as are undamped at the time, While on the other hand, thediscordant sympathetio vibration is eliminated, thereby avoiding anobjection tothe normal damper pedal operation.

Whether or not. any deliberate variation in intensity is provided forupon the sheet, by informative symbols or otherwise, the sustainingefects above described give, in actual playing, an effect of light andshade, as it were, in intensities upon many types Vof playino'instruments.

or example, when many notes are .being sustained in the unique mannerprovided for by the prolongations of a large proportion of. theindividual note perforations, each pneumatic playing action which isemployed in so sustaining Va note, continuously bleeds from the supplyof pneumatic pressure or exhaust and thereby tends Vto reduce suchvpressure or exhaust with 'a tendency lto 70 the note initially soundedbythe perforation Y cause succeeding notes to be sounded more softly.This tendency is, of course, increased as a greater number of notes aresustained and the effect is enhanced, to such an extent as to be readilyappreciable, by the use of the extensive note sustaining prolongationsor perforations, overlapping in many cases, as illustrated in thedrawing. While this effect of light and shade in intensity does notnecessarily follow the variations in intensity which may be indicatedupon the original record, it nevertheless serves substantially andvaluably to eliminate the practically uniform intensity of playing whichcontributes to the monotonous mechanical quality which has characterizedthe playin by means of most note sheets heretofore usedg, and hasinvariably characterized the playing of note sheets havin nosupplemental intensity or pedal per orations by which to operateauxiliary expression controlling mechanism. In other words, thisinvention presents for the first time in the art an arrangement ofperforations in a note sheet by which sustaining pedal effectsareproduced and at the same time the monotonous intensity of playing *iseliminated-all by means of individual note perforations and without theemployment of any automatic mechanism except the individual notesounding actions.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to thespecicdetails of the described illustrative note sheet construction. Onthe contrary, as will appear to those skilled in the art, the inventionmay be variously embodied.

Claims:

1. A note sheet for reproducing or imitating characteristics of a manualrendition, provided with note sounding perforations which have theiradvanced ends relatively located to sound their notes in accordance withdesired tempo, but which, in order to cause their notes to be sustainedwith the effect of a damper pedal operation, have their rear endsarbitrarily prolonged.

2. A note sheet for reproducing or imitating characteristics of a manualrendition, provided with note sounding perforations which have theiradvanced ends relatively located to sound their ,notes in accordancewith desired tempo, the length 0f some of said perforations being thatcalled for by the noted tempo value of the notes controlled thereby,while the length of others of said perforations differs from that calledfor by the noted tempo of the notes controlled thereby, by beingprolonged beyond that called for by said noted tempo, whereby thestrings of the notes controlled by the perforations thus prolonged aremaintained undarnped and said notes are individually sustained with theeffect of a damper pedal operation.

3. A note sheet for reproducing or imitating characteristics of a manualrendition having perforations therein for sounding respective notes,with their advance ends relatively located to sound the notes inaccordancewith desired tempo, a large proportion of perforationsselected from said perforations being arbitrarily prolonged, theprolongations of perforations corresponding to notes in a given musicalmeasure of the composition to be played, being substantially overlappedwhereby said prolongations combine to sustain their respective notesconcurrently with an effect of a damper pedal operation.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing Witnesses.

CHARLES F. STODDARD.

Witnesses:

RoB'r. I-I. WARD, J. H. CHASE.

Copies ot this patent may be obtained for nve cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of latenti, Washington, D. G.

